[Hacker] group Fail0verflow has claimed to have found a Nintendo Switch hack.

The group has posted the picture of Switch booting a Debian GNU/Linux installation. The picture also shows a serial adapter connected to one Joy-Con docks. Notably, Fail0verflow is the same group that hacked Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3.

What makes this Nintendo Switch hack special is that it can't be patched in the currently released consoles. This is because the exploit was found in the boot ROM process of Nvidia Tegra X1 chips that can't be patched with software or firmware updates.

That's not all. This hack to run Linux doesn't even need a mod chip to run.

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The Nintendo Switch has been an unqualified success so far, with Nintendo recently promising increased holiday season production to meet demand and expectations of over 16 million total sales by the end of March 2018. Reporting now suggests the company is expecting that sales pace to increase markedly in the coming year, though, and another associated production increase would come with both a fair amount of potential and risk for the company.

The production news comes from The Wall Street Journal, which cites "people with direct knowledge of the matter" in reporting that Nintendo plans to make 25 to 30 million Switch units in the coming fiscal year (which starts in April 2018). That's a major increase from the 13 million produced for the current fiscal year, which itself was a sizable increase from the company's initial plans to make just 8 million units for the console's first full year on shelves. WSJ's sources say those production numbers could go up even higher if coming holiday season sales are strong.

The success of the company's latest gaming console, the Nintendo Switch, is the result of lessons taken from the failed Wii U, according to Reggie Fils-Aimé, the president of Nintendo America.

[...] The console also didn't have a consistent flow of new games supporting the system. "We've addressed that with the Nintendo Switch -- having a steady pace of new launches is critical," he said. The Switch includes games like "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," "Super Mario Odyssey" and "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe."

Another issue with the Wii U was that it didn't have "strong support" from Nintendo's third-party partners, Fils-Aimé said. "Whether it's the big companies like Electronic Arts, or whether it's the smaller independent developer, we need those companies to create content to support us. We have that now with Nintendo Switch," he said.

Yesterday, hackers Plutoo, Derrek, and Naehrwert were at the 34C3 hacking conference in Germany to give a presentation on their kernel hacks on the Nintendo Switch (video below). Hacker Yellows8 wasn't there but was also credited for some of the work that led to this presentation.

[...] They detail in particular the sm:hax exploit (which consists in skipping an initialization step for a service, which results in the service manager thinking the service has pid 0, making it root giving it additional privileges*), as well as the hardware glitching process that was used to get the Kernel decryption keys. Naehrwert also presents how he bypassed ARM's Trustzone on the Switch, a stunt he insists "is not useful for homebrew, but fun".

One of the highlights of the presentation is how the hackers leveraged the fact that the Nintendo Switch uses an "off the shelf" Nivdia Tegra X1. A GPU that is well documented, and for which debugging hardware can also be officially be acquired at reasonable prices. The X1 documentation in particular gave the hackers detailed information on how to bypass some security of the SMMU (system Memory Management Unit). "Just search for 'bypass the SMMU' in the documentation", Plutoo says. He concludes: "Nvidia Backdoored themselves".

The one caveat to this new homebrew experience is that it is only currently validated for Nintendo Switch 3.0.0 firmware. So, if you want to take part in the festivities, you will need to stay on that firmware and resist the urge to update to a newer build.

Not long after its March launch last year, it was revealed that a GPU exploit in the Nintendo Switch could be used to run unofficial software, like pirated games and homebrew ROMs. Since then, the Switch's hacking community has grown, and the discovery of a new 'unpatchable' exploit last month has only made the console more attractive to pirates and homebrew fans.

Nintendo isn't taking the assault on its walled garden lightly, however, and is taking steps to crack down and dissuade users from taking advantage of the security holes.

The Japanese company has begun banning hacked consoles from its online services, sending error notifications when users attempt to log in. According to the message, "The use of online services on this console is currently restricted by Nintendo," and users will need to "Contact Customer Support via the Nintendo Support Website".

Comment Below Threshold

Like a spaghetti noodle(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @05:48AM

I saw you staring in the general direction of my rancid asshole. I know. I know all about how you admire my repugnant, parasite-infested, feces-filled rectum. Let's get this feces extravaganza started! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I just sucked your fetid cock into my smelly asshole at the speed of light! My mushy feces and the parasites within shall massage your disgusting little friend until it squirts out its sticky goodies into my fecal womb. Oh! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! What is this!? What is this concoction!? My feces and your cum combined to form... Feces Soup! This mythical concoction was thought to exist only in legends! Such a fuckin' thing!

Why would they patch thisWhy would they patch this(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday February 13 2018, @05:52AM
(9 children)

Once you put linux on it, its not longer suited to original purpose, (unless linux comes off of it clean). People who do this aren't going to be coming back with warranty claims. Why worry about it? Let them go. They did you a favor, they bought your Game console product and relieved you of any warranty issues by converting it to a general purpose computer.

--No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.

Re:Why would they patch this(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:22AM

IIUC, most consoles are sold at a loss, and the games are where profit is made. I don't understand why they'd patch though, it's a waste of resources when the console modding community is so small. Rather, it should be a profit opportunity - sell a Linux cartridge or whatever these things use and 99% of those people would rather give you their money.

Re:Why would they patch this(Score: 1) by tftp on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:32AM

Many consoles are sold below cost, and you are expected to buy games to make profit for the manufacturer. Though in this case I do not expect a mad rush to convert consoles, as the resulting Linux box is not for everyone.

Re:Why would they patch this(Score: 2) by Sourcery42 on Wednesday February 14 2018, @05:20PM

One reason I can think of is to stop people from running emulators. I have a wii with homebrew emulators on it that prompted some nostalgic runs through old 8 bit and 16 bit games. I think that wii has spent more time running old games than it ever did playing anything that was actually released for it. Thing is, Nintendo is still trying to monetize those old games. They continue to sell some classics for modern systems through their store. I think they call it virtual console or something like that. They prefer to have you pay them a second time for a classic game rather than loading up a rom in FCEU.

On the switch...(Score: 0, Offtopic) by anubi on Tuesday February 13 2018, @07:58AM

I still buy stuff that's useful. My latest acquisitions have been power converter modules and Arduino interfaces.

Now, if they put DRM in the power converters or Arduino interfaces, they become about as useful as light bulbs that fit sockets I do not have, or run on nonstandard voltages.

New Light Bulb! Requires 38 volts AC, 384 Hz! But isn't any more efficient than what you have now... but you have our trademark on it! Show your friends! You have something they don't!

These latest offerings are damn near useless to me. Why would I want something that I can't control? Would I buy a car that does not go where I steer it?

From my chair, I see the Nintendo Switch as a live-in sales rep for Nintendo products in my home. I have no use for it, matter of fact, to me, it has a negative value. I never had an X-box either. Flat did not want one. Only good for one thing.... getting into my wallet.

Side note:

My daddy used to tell me if I was a naughty boy, Santa would bring me a can of switches. And I would ask for double-pole double throw ones.

--"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

In terms of difficultyCracking the Switch:###########################Custom Linux for Switch:###Getting systemd to work: ##################################################################################################################################################################################################

This boss is a meanie. Just when it was about to die, it asked the hackers how much faster they would succeed using VI vs Emacs, and subsequently had time to regenerate, carefully pack its loot in a luggage, and leave the area while laughing about running Crysis.